Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai 03 — Ghost Hunt

Ano Hana,

In this episode, everyone meets up for a barbecue to search for Menma’s ghost (including Menma).

We had some nice development between Jinta and Menma as Jinta tries to go to school to make Menma happy. Menma has disocvered the secret to get Jinta to do anything for her, by musing that maybe it was her wish. Let’s see how long he lets her keep that one up. Menma also tries to make food for him, proving that ghosts can interact with the physical world. And what’s up with the multiple Menmas?

The scene where Jinta attempted to go to school was probably the high point of the episode for me. Anjou’s friends really are jerks, and this part made Tsurumi’s criticisms seem much more valid. I can even kind of sympathize with Jinta running away too (well, I wouldn’t run away, I would probably punch them in the face, but still, the same general feeling is behind it).

I like Tsurumi so far, but I’m fairly certain the creators are holding a lot back about her for later. The same is true of Matsuyuki, and it seems that the next episode will be dedicated to him. He seems to be hiding something in his closet, and I really hope it’s not what I think it is. If Matsuyuki used to be in love with Menma and is hiding her old clothes in his closet, I’m going to be annoyed.

C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control 02 — Black Yen

C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control,

I was disappointed that most of this episode was spent in a battle which wasn’t nearly as interesting as the first episode’s. It wasn’t too creative either, just tossing giant iron balls around and casting chain lightning. I thought Mashu was going to do some crazy-awesome killer move and it was pretty disappointing to have her just shout the name of the technique and blow the guy to smithereens. And if she got summoned and says she’ll heal soon, am I supposed to worry about her? Overall, the battle was not interesting enough to justify all the time that was spent on it, and what makes or breaks noitanimA shows is how effectively they use their time. C is certainly ambitious enough that it’ll need to use every second it has.

A decent mystery is developing in C centering around the nature of the financial district and the Midas bank, and this is what the creators need to focus on together with the characters. I’m guessing there must be some conspiracy behind introducing Midas money into the real world. It’s surprising how common it is too. It must account for a substantial amount of the world’s currency, and one would think that the national banks would have noticed. I have my doubts that it is entirely interchangeable with actual money.

Also, how do these battles continue to happen if our main character is the only one to win his first battle since the old guy? That guy must have won his first battle at least a year ago since he seems to know so much. Yet it appears that if you lose a battle you become bankrupt, get kicked out of the financial district and lose your future. If everyone needs to battle once a week, then they must get a number of new guys equal to the current population every week to prevent the number of “entrees” from decaying. Doesn’t seem too efficient, but I suppose that’s how banks operate. I’m guessing there’s something they aren’t telling us though… are there other classes besides entrepreneurs?

The main character, Kimimaro, had an interesting background from the previous episode, but it didn’t get used well at all in this episode. He just acted like your generic protagonist who gets pulled into another word. They did have the bit about his father at the end, but it kind of just came out of nowhere.They also really need to develop Mashu, his asset, more. She’s way too bland at the moment. Hopefully this will happen in time.

Hanasaku Iroha 04 — Minchi in Love

Hanasaku Iroha,

Wasn’t that face just made to be bullied? The flowers are screaming “make me cry”. Unfortunately, this episode was mostly upbeat aside from a single attempted murder by Minchi.

I’m not certain I really like the direction this show is going in. The first two episodes were excellent, with all the conflict surrounding Ohana’s coming to the inn. But now all the tension has completely evaporated as the show has devolved into bondage, road races, giant birds and love triangles. Hanasaku Iroha had some excellent drama that made it stand out in the first two episodes, but the creators seem to have completely forgotten about it.

As far as the love triangle goes though, I do like Minchi’s one sided crush on the kitchen helper. They’re both such jerks that it’s not the kind of thing you usually get to see. Minchi’s love rival seems promising as well, appearing to be more or less Minko’s complete opposite. I’m curious to see how Ohana will deal with the two of them.

Moshidora — First Impression

Impressions,

Moshidora is about a baseball team manager who guides her team based on a reading of Drucker’s “Management.” The first episode introduces the main character, explains her motivations for becoming the team manager, and she begins to read the book and use the advicer for her team.

The first episode seemed fairly promising. It moved along at a decent clip and had a good mix of baseball, management and interactions between the characters. I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest fan of baseball— I find it to be the most boring sport ever created— but it’s portrayal wasn’t that bad. A fairly accurate portrayal, but they skipped through the 99% of the game which is just people standing around, and showed how the game is won or lost through one person’s stupid split-second mistake. Just not my thing.

As far as the characters though, the main girl seems a tad bland, but she’ll probably develop as the show continues. I’m generally not a fan of tragic girls in hospitals, but her backstory was well thought out at least. I like the guy who joined the baseball team to make business connections. It’s a much better reason for joining the team than actually liking baseball.  I won’t blog this since I’ll just complain about baseball the whole time, but I do plan to keep watching.

Steins; Gate 04 — Quest for the IBN 5100

Steins; Gate,

Ookarin’s banter continues to carry this show. This show has a great script.

I was questioning all of the new female characters in Okarin’s harem that were introduced in the last episodes, but they’re slowly starting to grow on me. This episode was Feiris-tan’s chance to shine. At first she seemed like a completely worthless character added as an afterthought to so they could have a girl in a maid uniform and cat ears, but this episode proved that this wasn’t true (well, at least not entirely). Her back and forth with Okarin is great, almost to the level of Christina.

Hououin’s rant about how the world has room for only one mad scientist was beyond awesome. At last we have someone who is honest about his own motivations for saving the world. 🙂

If Stein’s; Gate can avoid Chaos Head’s path of stereotypical final boss fights and characters of dwindling interest, it’s going to end up as a great conspiracy show. It does need more work on the side characters, and the mystery didn’t advance much this episode, but I feel that it’s getting there.